Defensive Pistol Practise - Range Report

A group of people at my gun club have shown some interest in defensive pistol shooting with an eye to competing in IDPA.  This Sunday we had eight shooters and shot a few different courses of fire (COF's).  Since the snow makes our footing a bit treacherous we mostly did static shooting until the snow was tramped down.

I generally turned in the best times on the COF's but I've been shooting about 500 rounds a month for the last 6 months or so and most of the shooters are a bit behind on the practice curve.  I'm sure they'll catch up and surpass my paltry skill level.  I also had the opportunity to fire a few guns, a High Point JHP45 ACP, a Russian SVT-40, an STI 2011 IPSC race gun, and a .40 S&W Gen 3 Glock 23.

My favorite gun was the Glock 23 with 180GR bullet.  I also shot a 200GR load and I found that it hammered the frame into the web of my thumb.  The fellow whose Glock I was shooting preferred the 200GR load an obvious case of YMMV.  

The IPSC race gun was fun but the compensator and the very hot 9mm loads made it a gun I wouldn't enjoy shooting all the time.  I must admit though that the .8lb trigger pull and the very minimal takeup

I also did a 3" group at 50 yards with my .45-70 GOV. Ruger No.1 shooting offhand.  Yes this is just luck, but the gun was shooting very well in the cold. 

The low-point of the day was the Hi-Point in .45ACP.  The owner was complaining that he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.  The owner has a bit of nerve damage in one hand and thought that might be the problem but I notice that it was keyholing when I was patching his targets.  He slugged the bore on Monday and wrote me that the bore was oversized.  Well done Hi-Point!  I had been considering a Hi-Point carbine in .45ACP but now I'm not.

Overall I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and I have a core of about four shooters with about four drop-ins each session.  It looks like I'm going to have to organize a new shooter orientation course and a qualifier for the spring.  <Happy Dance>